The entire city of Beijing is preparing for the 2008 Olympics. Everywhere I go in Beijing, I'm assaulted by Olympics merchandise, new building construction, discussions about the air quality, and various propaganda. There is no mistaking the level of enthusiasm that people (and the government) in Beijing have for the 2008 Olympic Games.
The showcase building is the "birds nest" (see photo). This is the building to be used for the opening and closing ceremonies as well as some of the track and field events. It is controversial, but personally, I think it looks kind of cool. Since I arrived in September, whenever I ride in a taxi to the airport or along the same road, I crane my neck to look around the construction barriers to see the bird's nest and the nearby aquatics center, which I affectionately call the "bubble building" (see photo).
All of this neck-craning, however, came to an end on Saturday when we got an actual "tour" of the facilities. It wasn't really a "tour" because officially no one is allowed to come onto the construction site, but some magic worked by Leigh in our Stanford office opened the doors for us. We weren't able to get very close to the bird's nest because the mayor was on site, but we got up close to the aquatics center, were able to look down the row of Olympic buildings (see photo), and drove by Olympic Village. It was pretty cool to see how its all coming together.
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